


Chrysopoeia

by 0positiv



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Leonard Snart Lives
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-25
Updated: 2019-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-23 19:42:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13794912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0positiv/pseuds/0positiv
Summary: “Um, guys? I think you should come have a look at this.”Wally’s voice sounded confused and slightly worried.Trailing some fallen leaves from outside behind himself Barry came to a stop next to Wally nearly before the younger man had even stopped speaking. “What is it?”Wally just pointed through the door he’d obviously just forced open. “There’s another cocoon and it’s still closed.”(Goes AU after season 3 ofThe Flash)





	1. Chapter 1

“Um, guys? I think you should come have a look at this.”

Wally’s voice sounded confused and slightly worried. He had been checking out another supposedly abandoned warehouse - Barry still couldn’t quite believe how many of those Central had and he’d been chasing criminals through them for three years - that was suspiciously still draining electricity. They suspected Savitar had stored some of his equipment there as a backup. Wouldn’t do to leave that lying around for any random person to stumble upon, really. 

Trailing some fallen leaves from outside behind himself Barry came to a stop next to Wally nearly before the younger man had even stopped speaking. “What is it?”

Wally just pointed through the door he’d obviously just forced open. “If I didn’t know better I’d  say it’s a love nest. But anyway, there’s another cocoon and it’s still closed.”

Adrenaline made Barry take the few steps into the room at nearly full speed stirring up the slight covering of dust over the furniture inside. It looked...cosy, surprisingly. There was a sofa with pillows and a heap of blankets, a tv, a tiny kitchen with a refrigerator that was still drawing power going by its quiet humming, a bathroom just visible through another door in the wall next to a king sized bed with another heap of pillows and blankets. An electrical space heater stood unplugged at the foot of the bed.

And taking up most of the rest of the room, right in the centre of it, lay the cocoon. 

“Savitar must have made this just before he tried to...just before Infantino Street”, Barry  said. “If it had been from before it wouldn’t still be intact.”

Barry stepped closer, one hand stretched out towards it as if he was about to touch the cocoon.

“Who do you think is inside”, Wally asked as he searched the room at superspeed. “Nothing much here apart from some food, mostly canned, bottled  water, some books, and a pile of clothes in the bathroom.”

Letting his hand fall and turning away from the cocoon Barry had a small look around the room himself. 

“I don’t know. But clearly someone Savitar wanted to be comfortable once they woke up. Comfortable and locked up, though. Why lock them in?”

Wally measured the door against the cocoon with his eyes. “Do you think we can take it...them...whatever, to S.T.A.R. labs? Looks like it might just about fit through that door. If we both carry it we could run it there right now.”

“Have you checked the rest of the warehouse? Is there anything else Savitar left behind?”

Wally shook his head. “Nothing apart from this. It doesn’t even look like anyone has been in the other rooms in years.”

“Ok then. Do you want to take the front end and I take the back end?”

“Where exactly  _ is _ the front end on this thing?”

Barry chuckled despite himself. “Just pick one end and run in front, Wally.”

In a flash of lightning and a tiny tornado of dust both speedsters and the cocoon vanished from the warehouse to appear only moments later in the cortex at S.T.A.R. labs.

Another tiny flicker of lightning signaled Barry zipping back to fetch the clothes from the bathroom, just in case whoever was in that cocoon needed them.

* * *

“Dude, where did that come from”, Cisco asked when he came back from his own trip to yet another warehouse. “And why is it here?”

“Wally found it in one of Savitar’s hideouts. We didn’t think it would be a good idea to just leave it there”, Barry replied  after speed eating a calorie bar. 

“Any way we can find out who’s in there before they hatch? Do cocoons hatch? Or is that just eggs”, Wally wondered out loud while throwing a ball to the other side of the room then racing over to catch it and throw it back and catch it again, et cetera, et cetera. It was making Cisco dizzy just watching him. 

Barry shrugged. “Yeah, pretty sure cocoons hatch, too. It should fit into the CT scanner, shouldn’t it?”

Cisco nodded. “Wally’s did. Not sure if that’ll help us find out who’s in there, though.”

Barry exchanged a short glance with Wally and with just a tiny bit of trailing lightning the cocoon was resting on the scanner’s bed and Barry was already starting up the computer.

Cisco hurried to follow them, trying not to acknowledge the stab of pain from being in the med lab without Caitlin.

“I’ll just run a quick-ish low resolution full body scan to see which way round our friend in there is”, Barry said typing away at the computer.

Wally was watching over his shoulder. “How do you even know how to use this thing”, he asked.

“Um, I had Caitlin show me, just in case she wasn’t here and we needed it.” Barry’s eyes reflected the same pain Cisco had just stopped himself from feeling. Cisco quickly turned around to watch the scanning process instead. 

The machine started whirring to live and they watched as picture after picture of slices of the cocoon started appearing on the screen.

“I think you put them face down”, Cisco remarked, tilting his head to the side. “And what’s that? Wait, never mind. Yes, definitely face down and  _ definitely _ male.”

“Ok, so now that we know where the head is I’ll do a more thorough scan of that and then we’ll have the computer make us a 3d rendering so we can run his face through facial recognition. The scan should take about 10 minutes and then the computer will take about 5 to 10 minutes to render the image.” 

Barry clicked a few more buttons and the scanner started up again.

The three of them had only been watching proceedings for about a second before both speedsters started to get antsy.

“Guys, why don’t you, I don’t know, run around the city, or something? All this high speed fidgeting is driving me mad”, Cisco said making shooing motions at his friends.

Barry and Wally shared a grin. “We’ll go to the speed lab, have a race or something. Call us when it’s done?”

“Yes, yes, just leave.”

They were gone before Cisco had even finished the sentence. 

That just left him and Mr. Caterpillar over there. 

“I need some coffee, lots of coffee, and I’m talking to a cocoon…”

Shaking his head Cisco headed to the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee before returning to the lab to work and keep an eye on the scan.

* * *

 

About twenty minutes later a beep allerted him that the rendering was complete. Cisco pulled the image onto his own computer since he had no intention of getting up and walking over there just to look at it.

“Um, guys”, he said over the intercom system. “Rendering is all done but I don’t …”

Rustling paper announced the arrival of the two speedsters before Cisco had even finished speaking. He turned the intercom back off and pointed at the screen.

“As I was saying, when you so rudely ran out on me: I don’t think we’ll need to run it through facial recognition.”

Wally looked confused. “You know this guy.”

“It’s Snart”, Barry replied, his voice somewhere between shock and disbelief.

“Captain Cold”, Cisco added. “Who is supposed to be dead.”

“So how is a dead guy in one of Savitar’s cocoons and, you know, not dead? He’s not dead, isn’t he?” Wally craned his neck to look over at the med lab.

“He’s not dead.” Barry was still sounding like he wasn’t sure if this was real or not.

“Like Wally said:  _ How  _ is he not dead? Last we know he went with the Legends and got himself blown up.”

Letting himself fall down into the chair next to Cisco Barry started fiddling with a pen.

“It must have something to do with Flashpoint. All the people Savitar gave powers to had been metas in Flashpoint.”

“Did Captain Cold have powers in Flashpoint?”   
“I don’t know, Cisco. I never saw him there. I didn’t even hear about him or anything.”

“Maybe he wasn’t Captain Cold in Flashpoint”, Wally suggested. “Or he was also dead there?”

“Maybe he wasn’t. Both, either, you know what I mean?”

“No dude, we really don’t.”

“ _ I _ wasn’t the Flash in Flashpoint so Snart never met me. Maybe he never got the cold gun? And maybe he never went time travelling on the Waverider? Maybe he didn’t die in Flashpoint?”

They were all silent for a few moments while they tried to wrap their minds around the timey whimey timeline stuff. 

“But even if he wasn’t dead in Flashpoint he was still dead here. So how is he not dead now?”

“Savitar must have somehow saved him and used the Brahamastra stone on him after he got out of the Speed Force.”

“Why would Savitar save Cold, of all people.” Cisco chewed absentmindedly on some gummy bears. 

“Because Savitar was me”, Barry said with a frown. “And Snart died because I told him he could be better, that he could be a hero.  _ I  _ wouldn’t have risked creating another Flashpoint to save Snart but Savitar apparently would.”

“Never knew you cared that much about Cold, Barry. He’s your nemesis, after all.”

“He was a good man, underneath all the crime and drama, he just didn’t want to see it.”

They fell into another contemplative silence.

“So, will he have powers, too, when he gets out of there”, Wally asked no one in particular.

“Ten bucks say he’ll have ice powers”, Cisco replied, trying to lighten the mood.

“I’d definitely lose if I bet against that.” Barry grinned at his friend. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

“How long do you think it will take?”

“Not sure, Cisco. We don’t know how long he’s been in there and we don’t really know how long it took for the others or if it was the same amount of time for everyone. It might vary on how much change they need to go through? And, as we’ve learned with Wally, just cutting him out isn’t exactly an option.”

“Yes, I definitely wouldn’t recommend that.” Wally pulled a face. “That was unpleasant.”

“I think we should just monitor him and wait.”

“Great, so who will get first babysitting duty?” Cisco clearly wanted to indicate that it was not going to be him.

“I’ll stay”, Barry volunteered. “I’ve got tomorrow off work anyway and I want to see if I can run some tests on the cocoon that might tell us more about the whole process.”

 


	2. Chapter 2

“Barry, you might want to get over here.” Cisco hastily grabbed the folder he'd just dropped on a table to prevent it from becoming a projectile when Barry inevitably ran into the cortex at full speed. He was supposed to be at home so he'd be here in three, two, one… zero point five.

And nearly on time Cisco's hair flew into his face as Barry materialised beside him. 

“What's up, Cisco? I was just making dinner.”

“You'll have to put that on ice, my friend.”

Cisco pointed to the screen in front of them that showed the isolation room they'd moved the cocoon into two days ago. 

“I just came back from doing some maintenance on the speed lab and found this.”

Barry leaned closer to the screen.

“The cocoon's open. So where is Snart.”

“Look closer, there, behind it.”

Barry frowned.

“Why is the wall turning white?”

His fingers flying over the keys Cisco brought up the AC control program for the room.

“Because the temperature has gone down 10 degrees in there in the last 5 minutes and it's still dropping. The wall is icing over. You owe me ten bucks.”

“I never accepted that bet. Wait, did you make a cold pun earlier, about my dinner?”

Cisco just smirked at him. Barry rolled his eyes.

“I should go down there, make sure he's ok.” Barry looked about ready to flash away before Cisco put a hand on his arm. 

“Don't go in there, yet, ok? We don't know what he could do to you. He might turn you into a Flash-sicle. Just speak to him from the observation room.”

Barry sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck.

“Of course, that's what I was just about to do.”

“Sure you were, pal.” Cisco winked at him then let him go. When he switched to a split screen view of both the camera in the isolation room and the one in the observation room Barry was already down there his hand on the button for the intercom. Cisco turned on the sound to shamelessly eavesdrop.

* * *

“Snart? Can you hear me? Are you ok?”

Barry tried to look around or over the cocoon but so far had no luck seeing even a hair of Snart’s head.

As soon as he spoke he heard the scuffing of shoes on ice and the rustle of clothes before Snart's head poked up over the ripped open remainder of the cocoon. 

“Just peachy”, Snart replied. The look on his face reminded Barry of the time he'd been unwillingly working with Lewis, part pissed off, part desperate. “It's all  _ cool. _ ”

Barry couldn't hold back the groan.

“You can't be doing so bad if you're still making bad puns.”

Being careful not to slip on the ice that was nearly covering all of the floor Snart made his way towards the glass.

“What the hell is going on here, Barry? And how did I get here?”

Frost started growing outwards from the hand Snart had placed against the glass to steady himself. Barry could see that the sleeve of his jacket was badly burned on that side up to his shoulder. The rest of his clothes were in only slightly better condition and the cold gun no where to be seen. He was shivering slightly.

Barry's eyes were drawn back to the fractals of ice creeping over the glass.

“Oh, that's pretty.”

“Focus,  _ Flash _ , why am I here, why am I not dead, and why am I …”, Snart trailed off and made a vague hand motion at the state of the room as well as himself.

“Queen Elsa?” Barry finished his question with a big grin. “Well, that's a long story and we're not entirely sure about most of it. Yet. What's the last thing you remember before walking up here?”

Snart frowned and the ice stopped spreading.

“Having my arm inside a  _ time bomb _ , then blue light and heat, then...I don't know. I thought I saw you, just for a split second before everything went black, but it can't have been you.”

He shrugged and pulled a face as his eyes flicker over to the cocoon.

“And then the next thing I remember is waking up in  _ that  _ and having to crawl out of it. What is that thing, anyway?”

“It's basically a cocoon.”

Barry saw the ice starting to melt at the edges. Clearly distracting Snart from his panic helped reign in his powers.

“I'm definitely not a butterfly so how did I end up in a cocoon?”

“Explaining that will take a while. Why don't I get you some food and we'll talk when you've freshened up? Bathroom is over there, I left you a change of clothes, too. Try not to freeze the pipes?”

Snart just gave him an unimpressed glare before stalking to the bathroom.

His feet only left tiny frozen footprints behind instead of freezing the whole floor again. Barry decided to count that as a good sign.

* * *

“You did what? Wait, which year is this?”

Snart was slowly sipping from a hot cup of cocoa, doing his best not to freeze it solid, while Barry finished telling him about the whole mess with Savitar.

“This is shortly after you came to get me from Siberia to help you break into Argus, isn't it? But that was months ago. For me, anyway. I  _ hate _ time travel.”

Barry shrugged sheepishly. “I'm not too fond of it anymore myself, to be honest. Having to fight an evil time remnant version of yourself will do that to people.”

“So  _ evil _ you rescued me while  _ good _ you just put me back on the Waverider to die without even warning me? Not so sure I agree with your definition of evil.”

Barry was rather glad the glare Snart sent his way then couldn't freeze things. Apparently his powers only worked on things he was touching.

“I didn't have a choice. I couldn't risk changing the timeline,  _ again.  _ Who knows what would have happened.”

“Convenient. So what do we do now,  _ Flash _ ? Will you lock me up in the metahuman wing of Iron Heights, or in your little private prison here?”

Barry felt hurt at the angry tone as much as the accusation.

“No, of course not. We'll help you control these powers and when we're sure you're not going to accidentally freeze people you are free to leave.”

Snart slowly turned the cup in his hands upside down and a frozen block of cocoa fell to the floor.

“Good luck with that.”

* * *

After about ten hours of running every test Cisco and Barry could think of on Snart and having him try out his powers in ever more ridiculous ways they sat down in the observation room to talk through their findings.

“As far as I can tell even though he’s freezing things his powers work completely differently from Killer Frost’s.”

“Who’s Killer Frost”, Snart interrupted from his chair in the isolation room.

“Um, Caitlin’s alter ego? Like Bruce Banner and the Hulk, only less green and more evil?” Cisco looked uncomfortable having to talk about their absent friend.

“I wasn’t aware Dr. Snow was a metahuman. When did that happen?”

Barry frowned and tried to remember how far back it had started. “Not really sure, she was hiding it from us, but it was definitely after you left on the Waverider.”

“And she’s got ice powers?”

Barry and Cisco nodded.

“Of course she does, with a name like Snow. And you complain about my puns…”

“Anyway, Killer Frost freezes things by drawing heat from her surroundings, mostly. She can also create snowballs and icicles and all kinds of other unpleasant frozen things out of the humidity in the air.”

Snart noded to show he understood. “And that’s not what I do?”

“No, as we’ve found out you can’t make it snow or anything. From the thermal imaging and other readings it looks like Killer Frost’s power is centripetal while yours is centrifugal.”

“Because she’s drawing in heat and I’m….not?”

Barry shrugged. “In very broad strokes, yes. Do you know what happens on a molecular level to make something cold?”

Snart rolled his eyes. “I stole a cold gun to slow you down, of course I know that cold slows things down. In our case my cold gun slows you down, in a more general case when things are cold their atoms are vibrating at a slower frequency.”

“Exactly”; Cisco exclaimed. “Killer Frost draws out heat and things slow down.  _ You _ , on the other hand,  _ slow things down _ and that’s why they freeze. You don’t control temperature, you control speed.” 

Cisco only seemed to realise what he just said when a smug grin started to appear on Snart’s face.

“Oh no, that’s not good, not good at all. And it’s definitely not funny, Captain Cold, stop laughing!”

Barry looked slightly uncomfortable with that revelation himself. 

“But how can he slow things down? Is it telekinesis?”

Cisco shook his head.

“No, it think it’s more of a time bubble. Do you see the clock up there on the wall of the isolation room?” All three of them turned and looked at the clock. “It’s running a whole 5 minutes slow compared to every other clock in the building, and it wasn’t running slow before Cold froze the wall beneath it.”

Snart got a thoughtful look Cisco didn’t like at all.

“So I’m manipulating time? And if time’s not moving fast enough things freeze?”

“Something like that, yes. Only it’s very localized. It just affects whatever you’re touching in a radius of about 6 feet, at most, and it gets weaker towards the perifery.”

Snart just hummed thoughtfully while Cisco was typing away on his tablet.

“Do you think it’s got something to do with blowing up the Oculus”, Barry asked to break the silence. “I mean you stood right next to something that could control time when it blew up and now  _ you  _ can control time. Seems like too much of a coincidence.”

“It does, doesn’t it? But I have no idea how to prove or disprove this theory. So, why can I only slow down time in things I touch? We met this assasin, the Pilgrim, lunatic lap dog of the Time Masters, and she somehow managed something Rip called temporal micro-manipulation. Basically she could speed up, slow down or even reverse time in her general vicinity. So why don’t my powers work like that? That would be much  _ cooler _ .”

Cisco taped his pen against his lips. “We don’t know yet how exactly your powers work. Working through touch might just be the easiest way? Maybe if you try you’ll find a way to create a field effect as well?”

“Please, Cisco, don’t go giving him ideas”,Barry groaned when Snart’s grin got even wider. 

Cisco ignored him. “Do you know how this Pilgrim got her powers? Or how she controlled them?”

“‘Fraid not. She wasn’t exactly in a chatty mood while trying to kill us all and we can’t ask her now because Rip killed her. I guess we could ask Rip but I doubt he knows.”

Barry thought that those two definitely needed adult supervision from now on. Who knows what crazy experiments they’d come up with? Also he’d better change the topic before Cisco put any more dangerous ideas into Snart’s head.

“Maybe Gideon would know”; Barry suggested, just to get them back on track. “We should let the Waverider know you’re back, anyway, shouldn’t we? Unless you don’t want them to know..?”

“Is Mick still with them”, Snart asked. When Barry nodded he continued: “Then tell them. Mick deserves to know, even though he’ll most likely punch me in the face. I couldn’t care less about the rest of them right now. And Lisa, she needs to know. Where is she?”

“I can text her and ask her to come here”, Cisco suggested. “This is definitely news that need to be broken with proof at hand or she’d turn me into a gold statue.”

“That’s my Lisa.” Snart’s smile was definitely too proud for Cisco’s liking.


	3. Chapter 3

 

“You're so lucky you're behind that glass, jerk.”

Cisco was nervously wringing his hands watching Lisa pace the observation room, one hand gripping her still holstered gold gun tightly, the other pointing an accusing finger at her brother. He had no idea what he should do if she actually got violent.

When he’d called her she’d been flirtatious, at first, which had slowly progressed to suspicious when he kept insisting she needed to come to S.T.A.R. labs but that it definitely, very definitely wasn’t a date. She’d finally agreed to drop by, most likely because she’d been too curious what exactly made Cisco brave a phone call with her  for the first time since she’d given him her number.

When she’d arrived at the lab he’d sat her down in his chair, perching a flank on the table himself, and taken her hand. Her lifted eyebrow had told him that he was still acting suspiciously.

He’d told her in as few words as possible that her brother was alive, how he came to be at S.T.A.R. labs and that he was a bit more _fridgid_ than before.

Her face had slowly lost all expression and her hand had been gripping his tight enough that he feared she might break some bones by the time he had finished. She hadn’t interrupted him even once or asked any questions but as soon as he was done she’d pulled him closer by his shirt and said in a voice very reminiscent of her big brother in full on Captain Cold mode: “If you just lied to me I will cut off all unnecessary bits off your anatomy very slowly and very painfully, understood?”

He’d just nodded and not tempted fate even more than he already had by making any kind of comment.

“Good, now take me to my brother.”

And that’s why he was standing in a corner watching the Snart siblings’ rather frosty reunion. Not that he’d expected them to hug - impossible because of Snart the older being locked into the isolation room - or to cry - most likely not physically possible for either of them - but Lisa’s cold tone was still a surprise for Cisco.

Not so much for her brother, it seemed. He merely looked resigned to his fate.

Lisa hadn’t smiled once since he’d let her into the observation room. She’d started right in with the angry ranting.

“What the hell were you thinking, Len?”

Snart stood completely still, arms crossed and face hard. “I was thinking that I wasn't going to let my best friend die when he'd already been through too much shit because of me!”

“So instead you took the coward’s way out and left _both of us_ behind? Have you got any idea what you did to Mick? He would hardly look at me when he came to tell me you'd… When he told me what happened. He blamed himself and I bet he wouldn't even have tried to stop me if I'd shot him for it!”

Something changed in Snart's expression, Cisco want exactly sure what, but he suddenly looked nearly devastated.

“Why the hell would he think that?”

Lisa finally took her hand off her gun and crossed her arms as well. Cisco breathed a tiny sigh of relief.

“Because you're both idiots. Not just for that stunt you pulled but for leaving with a bunch of heroes in the first place. And you never even said goodbye.”

Snart pinched the bridge of his nose.

“It was a time ship, sis. We were supposed to be back the minute after we left.”

“It was a stupid, dangerous mission and you should have told me. You're the only family I have, Len.”

Lisa stepped closer to the glass and Snart did the same on the other side. The situation must remind them uncomfortably of the times Lisa visited her brother in prison.

Cisco felt bad watching the two of them in such a private moment but he didn't want to draw their attention by leaving. He didn't think it would be a good idea to leave them unsupervised anyway. Lisa might try to let her brother out even though he'd explained his condition to her. Cisco wasn’t sure how much of his explanation she’d even heard after he’d told her that her brother was alive.

When Snart laid his hand against the glass it immediately started frosting over.

“I'd let you punch me, sis, but I don't think that would be a good idea right now.” His smile was wry and Lisa laughed despite herself.

“You being a little _frosty_ never stopped me before, Lenny.”

She lifted up her own hand near the frozen glass but didn't touch it.

“You do realise this will come in very handy on heists, right”, Lisa asked and they shared an identical mischievous grin. Cisco couldn't quite stop himself from groaning. It didn’t seem like the two thieves heard him.

“Oh, believe me, sis, I've got so many plans for when I can finally control this.”

“You better hurry up with that or I'll just have to have all the fun without you.” Lisa lowered her hand again and gave him a smile full of fake innocence. “After all, a girl's got to make a living. And there's this really beautiful gold necklace that would just look fabulous around my neck.”

Snart lifted an eyebrow.

“My little Lisa, all grown up, pulling her own heists.”

“Oh shut up and concentrate on getting these powers under control, jerk.”

“I'll be out of here in no time, trainwreck. You'll see.”

* * *

“Cisco, be honest with me. How's Lenny really doing?” Lisa stopped him with a hand on his arm while he was walking her back out to her bike. “He always pretends he's fine because he doesn't want to worry me, he's done that since I can remember. Even when I could see the bruises and how he was limping he'd always tell me he was fine.”

Cisco ran a hand through his hair.

“He's as well as can be expected, I guess. Physically there is absolutely nothing wrong with him. It seems the cocoon healed whatever damage the Oculus caused before he was rescued. Mentally...to be honest I’ve got no idea how he’s handling it.”

Lisa frowned.

“The Oculus. Was that what they were blowing up? What was it? Mick never did tell me what exactly they'd been up to. He only said they'd been time traveling and that Lenny… That he saved the world. Have you told Mick that Len’s back? He really needs to know.”

Cisco nodded. “We’ve sent a message to the Waverider but with them time travelling and stuff it might take a while for the message to reach them. But we’ll keep trying. Snart really wants Rory to know, too. Also you’d best ask Rory all about the Oculus when he gets here, preferably while I can eavesdrop. I don’t really know much about it myself.”

She looked back down the corridor towards the isolation room.

“He's really back, isn't he? I'm not dreaming this?”

Cisco awkwardly patted her hand that was still gripping his arm.

“He's really back. I'd offer to pinch you but I didn't plan on getting shot today…”

She turned back towards him with a fond smile and released his arm only to step closer and put both her arms around his neck.

“You're sweet, Cisco, and kind. Thank you for helping Lenny.”

Lisa pulled him in for a kiss and Cisco definitely wasn't complaining. Too soon she pulled back.

“Bye Cisco, expect me to come around more often while my brother is here.”

Cisco could only wave at her as she walked out of the building, his mind still catching up with that kiss. Damn, that woman was going to be the death of him one day...


	4. Chapter 4

As soon as the Waverider had landed lightning flashed and Barry stood in front of their door with a smile on his face.

“It seems Mr. Allen has arrived to greet us, Captain”, Gideon announced and showed the speedster tapping his foot on one of the monitors.

“Thank you, Gideon. Whatever he asked us here for it must be important then, I guess. Or maybe he’s just impatient”, Sara replied. She finished the time ship version of putting a car into park and tightening the handbrake before lifting up the bar on her chair.

“Everyone doing ok, no bleeding eyeballs” she asked as she turned the chair around to take a look at her crew. “We  _ did  _ just jump about 5000 years so…”

Mick looked unaffected, as usually. Stein was apparently having some trouble speaking and Jax was trying very hard not to laugh at him.

“All good, captain”, Ray said before promptly sliding out of his chair and onto the floor when his legs wouldn’t cooperate. “Apart from this, that is. I’m sure it’ll pass in a second. Um, some help, someone?”

Rolling his eyes and grumbling about idiot nerds Mick not too gently lifted Ray back into his chair. 

Amaya was rubbing her eyes and mumbling about blue spots. That was a new one but it didn’t seem dangerous.

“Nate, Zari, how are you doing?” Sara turned to the two remaining members of her crew and pulled a face when Zari promptly vomited.

“Ugh, will it ever stop sucking so badly? Why again did I let you talk me into this?” Wiping her mouth Zari got up on shaky legs to stumble towards the corridor. “I need to brush my teeth before we go anywhere. This is disgusting.”

Nate, meanwhile, had replied something in a language Sara didn’t understand.

“Gideon, what’s wrong with Nate?”

“He appears to be speaking in Church Latin, Captain Lance. It should pass in a few minutes.”

Sara nodded. “Ok, as soon as everyone is back to normal...well, as normal as usually, we better get out there before Barry gets…”

She didn’t even have time to finish her sentence before a grinning speedster appeared right in front of her.

“Hi guys, what’s taking so long? Everything ok?” Barry was nearly talking too fast for Sara to understand him and it took her brain a moment to catch up. 

Gideon didn’t seem to have the same problem.

“Mr. Allen, I don’t appreciate people phasing through the cargo bay wall and storming onto the bridge. You could at least have knocked.”

Barry looked sheepish at her stern tone and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Oh, um, sorry Gideon, sorry guys, I think I just got a bit impatient? And worried, definitely worried.”

Sara shook her head with a fond smile. “Did Ramon invent coffee that works on speedsters or why are you so hyped up?”

“No, no coffee, though that would be awesome, but I’ve got really good news and I can’t wait to show you. Is this everyone?”

“Calm down, Red”, Mick grumbled while keeping an eye on Ray who got up on still shaky legs but with a big smile on his face. “We’re just waiting out the side effects, and New Girl is taking a bathroom break.”

“Can’t you just  _ tell  _ us why we just had to jump here straight from the Bronze Age”, Stein asked. 

Nate seemed to agree with him but he was also still speaking Latin. Clearly the side effects were passing faster for the more experienced time travellers on the crew.

Barry blinked at Nate for a moment. “Is he speaking Latin?”

“Like I said, side effects.” Mick walked over to the office to grab the sandwich he’d left there when Sara had ordered them into their seats. 

“Barry, why are we here”, Sara asked, trying to bring them back on track.

“It’s definitely easier if I just show you. Who’s New Girl?”

“Hacker, from the future, she’s got a fancy necklace that makes wind.”

Sometimes Sara really appreciated Mick’s knack for brevity and concentrating on the important bits.

“Ok”, Barry replied, “and does she also have a name?”

As if an cue Zari came back to the bridge. “ _ She _ does. I’m Zari.” After the bathroom Zari seemed to have made a detour to the galley because she was nibbling on some crackers. 

“Hi Zari, I’m Barry Allen, aka the Flash.” Barry stuck out his hand which Zari promptly ignored.

“Yes, I know, A.R.G.U.S. had a whole file on you and let me tell you: no fans of yours.”

Barry opened and closed his mouth a few times then dropped his hand. “Of course they do. So, is this everyone? Can I just run you to S.T.A.R. labs? Walking takes ages.”

Jax held up his hands. “Oh no, definitely not. I just got over the dizziness and tinnitus time travel gave me, I am not getting all queasy again from letting you run me anywhere. We’re in the parking lot, it will take five minutes tops to walk to the cortex. At normal speed.”

Barry bit his lip. “Ok, yes, I guess five more minutes won’t be so bad. I’ll go ahead and tell Cisco you’re here?” Sara nodded and Barry was gone again.

“Captain, could you please remind Mr. Allen that phasing through the cargo bay wall to get  _ out  _ while I’m opening the door for him is also very bad manners?”

“Of course, Gideon, but I don’t expect it will have much of an effect. Let's not keep them waiting.”

* * *

In the end it took about seven minutes for Sara to herd everyone into the cortex without Ray, or Stein, or Zari making a detour through one of the labs they passed.

“I swear, it’s like herding cats sometimes”, she told Mick and Amaya as they all found some place to sit.

Barry and Cisco took turns bringing them up to speed on their own time travel related troubles.

“And Agent Sharp says we mess up the timeline, I should send her your way.”

Mick laughed. “She’d eat them alive.”

“Who’s...Never mind, you can tell me later. First I’ve got something to show you. Follow me.” Barry got up and headed out of the cortex at mostly normal speed, Cisco right on his heels.

Sara and her crew hastily got up and followed. 

“So, I told you about how Savitar could give people powers, right?” Barry asked walking backwards. At one point Cisco had to steer him away from the wall he was about to walk into.

“With the Philosopher’s Stone, yes”, Nate replied, still sounding slightly awed.

“Yes, with that. And while their bodies changed to accommodate their new powers those people would be in some kind of cocoon, like caterpillars turning into meta butterflies. And about ten days ago Wally found another one of those cocoons and  _ he _ was inside.”

They had stopped in front of a door that looked just like all the others they had passed on the way here and while ending his sentence Barry opened it to usher them inside. 

It was some kind of observation room with a big window on one wall looking into the next room.

And behind the glass stood Leonard Snart waving at them with a smirk.

“The illumination is back”, Mick mumbled and started hitting his head with his palm. Snart’s face immediately fell. 

“Someone stop him. Mick, I’m not a ...hallucination. I’m me. Scarlet, well a version of him, saved me from the Oculus.”

Mick lowered his arm and glared at Snart.

“Can’t be, you died.”

And the smirk was back. “It seems news of my passing were greatly exaggerated.” Snart turned around as if to show Mick that he was all right.

“As good as new, well, new-ish and with some extras. I know you said you’d punch me if I ever knocked you out again so I owe you a punch but it’ll have to wait until I get out of here.”

“Nobody is punching anyone until someone tells me how he’s here and why he’s locked up”, Sara injected and Snart looked surprised when the whole Waverider crew turned slightly towards her as if for instructions.

“I see you lot have a new boss”, Snart remarked and crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Could have chosen worse.”

Barry stepped forward, his hands raised. “Ok, can I explain real quick before anyone makes any rash decisions?”

Sara nodded and everyone turned towards him.

“Apparently Savitar, the time remnant I’ve been telling you about earlier, somehow grabbed Snart right at the moment when the Oculus exploded and brought him to this time. He used the Brahamastra stone on him and left him inside a cocoon in an abandoned warehouse. Turns out the cocoon healed him  _ and  _ turned him into a meta. We’re just keeping him in there until he can control his powers so he doesn’t accidentally hurt anyone.”

Everyone took a minute to digest that explanation.

“What powers does he have”, Ray asked with a big smile. “I bet it’s ice related, that seems to be how Central City works.”

Cisco made a wrong-answer-noise. “Nope, sorry to disappoint. Actually it’s more like time powers which have a side effect of making things really cold.”

Snart rapped a knuckle against the glass to draw their attention then just put one finger against the glass and slowly tendrils of frost spread outwards form it.

“That is awesome”, Jax exclaimed at the same time as Stein murmured “Astonishing”.

“How exactly does this work”; Ray ask Cisco and the two of them were soon lost in the finer discussion of temporal thermodynamics. 

Sara stepped closer to the glass, Mick trailing behind her like a silent yet menacing shadow.

“Don’t get me wrong, Leonard, I’m glad you’re not dead, but it’s been a really long time for us and we’ve been through some messed up stuff. We just need to be sure it’s really  _ our _ you, not some past you or other not-you.”

Snart took his finger away from the glass and shrugged. “And how do you expect me to prove that I’m me?” 

“Tin Can can run a scan on him, check his DNA and stuff, can’t she”, Mick asked. Sara could physically see him trying his hardest not to get his hopes up, again, just to have them possibly dashed as soon as Gideon did her thing. 

“Barry, can we take him to the Waverider, have Gideon give him a check up?”

Barry frowned and rubbed the back of his neck again. “I’m not sure if that’s safe. What if he loses control of his powers?”

“Scarlet, stop being such a worrier. I haven’t accidentally frozen anything in two days. I can keep it together on a trip to the ship and back.”

Ray and Cisco’s discussion had by now drawn in Stein and Zari as well. Nate, Amaya and Jax were standing a little apart from them, listening in and now and then rolling their eyes. 

Mick saw Sara look their way and bellowed: “Pretty, Jax, we’re taking Snart to the ship to check him out. You’re coming along. Amaya, babysit the nerds.”

Sara smiled at him then turned back to Barry. “See, already decided, we’re taking him. Don’t worry, it’ll be fine. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“You’ve just jinxed it. I’m coming along, if he loses control I can try speeding him to the brig or back here or something.”

“Are we done talking then?” Snart’s voice sounded closer than before and when they turned around he stood in the observation room, the door to the isolation room open behind him.

“You...how...what”, Barry stammered. “We locked that!”

Snart gave him a fond look and waved his lock picks at Barry. “Adorable. Shall we then?”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise, I'm not dead xD But, all joking aside, I am sorry for taking so terribly long to update. Real life killed my muses pretty dead and I am sure they are currently more zombie-muses than actually resurrected. Hence, have a short chapter, which I hope won't suck too badly. I hope anyone is still reading this, anyway ;)

“All the results indicate that this is indeed our Mr. Snart, Captain Lance”, Gideon said in her slightly disconcerting, cheerful way.

“Thank you, Gideon.” Sara only realised how tense she'd been once she allowed herself to relax.

“Always good to know I'm me”, Snart drawled and started to get off the chair.

Before he could so much as swing his legs over the side Mick was suddenly there and hit him with a right hook. He didn’t pull the punch even the slightest bit, either.

Sara immediately grabbed his arms to try and pull Mick back as tiny tendrils of frost started to snake out from under Snart’s hands. Startling new metas was never a good idea.

“What the hell, Mick”, she hissed at him.

Leonard closed his eyes for a second to get his powers back under control and the frost thawed.

“No, it's alright,  _ Captain Lance _ , I deserved that”, Snart said while rubbing his chin.

“Would you like me to take care of that bruise, Mr. Snart?”

Was Sara imagining it or did Gideon sound like she was trying not to laugh.

“No, Gideon, leave it. I can deal with a little bruising.”

Mick growled at him while shaking off Sara's hands. With his eyes still burning with some intense emotion he half pulled Len off the chair and into a bear hug.

“Damn it, Lenny, don't you ever do that again.”

Looking very much out of his depth Snart slightly put his arms around Mick’s much wider shoulders.

“There, there, no reason to lose your cool like that,  _ Heatwave _ .”

Mick just hugged him tighter in response.

“Mick, I  _ do _ need to breath, you know?”

Rory scoffed. “Still running your mouth so clearly air ain't a problem.”

When Len started to wiggle uncomfortably Mick took pity on him and let him go.

Sara looked over at Barry, who had stayed by the door, and found him watching their resident thieves with about as much confusion on his expressive face as she felt. Clearly he hadn't thought them to be the hugging type either.

“Ok, now that we've had Gideon confirm that I'm definitely me, we shall be on our way.”

Snart pushed himself off the chair and straightened his clothes.

He walked to the door then stopped and looked back towards his partner. “Coming, Mick?”

Sara had been sure Mick would jump at the chance so the look of indecision on his face took her by surprise. His eyes darted from Leonard to Jax and Nate, then to Sara and back to Len. His hands were clenching and unclenching, making his leather gloves creak. Nobody said a word, waiting for his decision. 

Finally he just mumbled “I need a drink” and nearly ran out of the room. Jax only just managed to jump out of his way and had to be caught by Barry when he stumbled over a chair.

“What the  _ hell _ did your band of do-gooders do to my partner?”

Somehow managing to glare daggers at all of them at once Snart turned to the door to follow Mick. Barry put a careful hand on his arm to stop him. When Len shifted his general glare to him and lifted an eyebrow Barry just pointed at the floor, which was starting to frost over when Len pulled away from his touch.

“I think it would be better to let things cool down a bit before you talk to him.” Barry's sheepish smile made it clear that his choice of words had been deliberate to cheer Len up a bit.

The thief indulged him and chuckled darkly. “Fine,  _ Flash _ , I'll  _ cool down _ . I promised Lisa I'd call her when I got out, anyway.” 

Without another look at any of them Snart stalked out of the room.

“I'll just…” Barry gestured awkwardly towards the door.

Sara waved him off. “Yes, go with him, I'll talk to Rory and we'll meet you at S.T.A.R. labs later.”

 

After grabbing a beer from the fridge in the galley Sara made her way to the bridge. Like Gideon had said, Mick was sprawled in one of the jump chairs with a bottle of something clear and alcoholic in his hand. Sara let herself fall into the chair next to his and clinked her bottle against his without a word before taking a sip. She was very happy to just sit here and drink until Mick was ready to talk. She had a lot of processing to do herself. Len, alive, somehow, and pissed off with all of them, for some reason, was not what she had expected.

“Gone soft, haven't I”, Mick finally asked. He didn't sound drunk, just a bit melancholic.

Sara shrugged. “If you have then I have, too. Making friends and caring about people isn't a bad thing, Mick.”

“Crooks don't have friends, Blondie. Especially those like me. All I've ever had was Snart. And Lisa, of course. Can't have one Snart without the other.” He took a big swallow from his bottle.

“I should be leaving with him without a second thought. But if I do you lot would be dead within a week.”

Sara lifted an eyebrow. “I am quite capable of keeping us safe, Rory. Some of the others aren't completely useless either.”

“Sure, ‘cause Haircut and Pretty are really great at keeping themselves alive. Only one who can even partially look after herself is the new girl.” He tilted his bottle towards Sara with a smirk. “And our fierce Captain, of course.”

“Damn right I can. And as your Captain I'm telling you that no one here will hold it against you if you decide to go with Snart. We get it, he's your partner and you thought you'd lost him and now he's suddenly alive again. I even kind of get why he wouldn't want to come back on the Waverider with us.”

“Hero ain't on his resume”, Mick replied with a chuckle. “But brother and partner is. I think he mostly doesn't want to leave Lisa again, not after nearly leaving her for good.”

“All very good reasons to stay. For him and for you. And just because you decide to stay in Central doesn't mean we won't ever come visit. We've got a time ship, we can visit you whenever we want.”

Mick grunted and took another sip from his bottle. 

“Gotta talk to Snart and think about this. We good to stick around here for a while?”

Sara finished her beer and got up. She punched Mick's arm as she walked past towards the door.

“Time ship, Rory, take as long as you need.”

 

“So, wanna talk about it?”

Barry kept pace with Snart as he stalked across the parking lot. His only reply was an icy look that made Barry very glad that Snart's powers didn't work at a distance.

“Ok, no talking about the big, pyromaniac elephant in the room… Time ship … whatever, then.”

“Shall I tell Mick you called him an elephant, Scarlett?”

Len's drawl sounded much more forced than usually and he was still scowling. 

“Since you'd have to talk to him to tell him: sure, go ahead. And while you're at it tell him why you want him to stay here with you instead of going time traveling.”

“You make a terrible shrink, Barry, leave it to the professionals.”

“Well, if you don't want to talk about this how about we talk about why you look at Sara like you want to bite her head off?”

“I don't.”

“You very much do.”

When Len entered the building he very deliberately shut the door in Barry's face and held it shut for a moment.

“Very mature, Snart.”

Len just gave him a cheeky grin and a wave before walking away down the corridor.

When Barry pulled at the door to open it it didn't budge and the freezing cold handle nearly burned his hand. “Not funny, Cold”, he shouted after him while trying to unfreeze the door by vibrating it. “Not even close to funny…” And yet Barry felt himself smile anyway. Damn, he’d missed Captain Cold. 

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know if you're interested in me continuing this. Comments would be very welcome :)


End file.
